Up to the present time, a typical vehicle sun roof has consisted of an opening in the roof of a vehicle, a movable sliding panel for opening and closing the opening in the roof and a movable sunshade to expose and cover the sliding panel. In these sun roofs, the sliding panel and the sunshade are slidably guided upon guide rails disposed on the side edges of the opening in the roof of the vehicle. Examples of this type of sun roof are disclosed in Unexamined Published Japanese Utility Model Application No. 3-33712 and Unexamined Published Japanese Patent Application No. 6-166327.
In the latter example, a rail on which the sunshade is slidably mounted extends from a rail for slidably mounting the slide panel. These rails are mounted in parallel fashion along opposite sides of the edge of a roof opening positioned towards a center of the vehicle roof, whereby the sliding panel and the sunshade are able to slide independently along the rails.
In certain types of vehicles, for instance sports utility vehicles, an overhead console is oftentimes mounted on the ceiling of the vehicle. Extreme difficulties arise, however, when attempting to equip the vehicle with an overhead console and a sun roof simultaneously, because the overhead console imposes a significant limitation on the range of movement of the sliding panel of the sun roof. For this reason, as in the case of the Ford Explorer for example, a small-sized overhead console is fixed at a forward position of the ceiling while the sliding panel of the sun roof is positioned immediately behind the overhead console.
Thus, in those vehicles where the overhead console has been mounted on the ceiling together with the sun roof, as in the Ford Explorer, the overhead console that can be mounted is limited to one which is relatively small in length. As a result, it is difficult to utilize such arrangement in a variety of different types of vehicles.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a sun roof apparatus and an overhead console that can be mounted in a variety of different types of vehicles and that would not limit the size of a relatively large sun roof and the overhead console.